2.15pm update

'Cold blooded' animal rights gang face long jail terms

Members of an animal rights gang were warned today they would be jailed for up to 12 years after admitting blackmail against the owners of a farm breeding guinea pigs for medical research, who faced a six-year intimidation campaign culminating in the theft of an elderly relative's dead body.

Judge Michael Pert told Kerry Whitburn and John Ablewhite, both 36, and 39-year-old John Smith that they should expect terms of up to 12 years in prison when they return to Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing in May.

The trio pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to blackmail David Hall and Partners and others linked to Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire, over six years from September 1999. Josephine Mayo, 38, who admitted the same charge today, was told she faced up to six years in prison.

The gang - described by the judge as "determined and cold-blooded defenders of their perceived cause" - took part in a lengthy campaign of intimidation and harassment against the Hall family and their employees at the farm, which activists claimed kept guinea pigs in terrible conditions.

During 2003/04 more than 400 incidents of intimidation were recorded in the local community. It culminated with the desecration of the grave of Gladys Hammond, the 82-year-old mother-in-law of one of the brothers who co-ran the farm.

None of the defendants admitted involvement in this. However, in a statement released after the court hearing Staffordshire Police said the conspiracy to blackmail charge "includes the desecration of the grave of Gladys Hammond".

The family was told that her remains would be returned if guinea pig breeding was ended. This happened in August last year, but the remains have not been returned.